New Faces Tournament
by Deltashenron
Summary: A tournament celebrating Duel Monsters is launched, but all is not as it seems! Join Samantha and co. as they progress through the world's biggest tournament for a chance at international stardom. Takes place in a different universe to both the anime and manga. OCs submissions accepted. It is my first story, so please review!


It was, by all accounts, a great idea. The New Faces Duel Monsters Tournament aimed to scout out the hot new talent for the Pro Leagues, offering people a chance at sponsorship with famous companies, such as the organiser of the tournament Industrial Illusions. Similar to the Olympics, the New Faces tournament was held in a new location each year. The prize for first place was also quite extravagant: an ultra-rare archetype of cards months or even years before they hit the market. Getting to first place was no easy matter of course. The tournament had one hundred and twenty eight competitors, ranging from small-town champions to Duel Academy honour students, all of them, no matter their background, dreaming of punching their ticket to the good life of riches, fame and influence that came with being a Pro Duelist.

To ensure that only the best of the fresh talent entered the tournament and to avoid the various Duel Academies dominating the competition, entry guidelines were strict. If you had ever competitor at national level, then you were not allowed enter. However, in order to enter in the first place, you must have at least made the quarter finals of a regional competition. The rule did not apply to Academy students or 'Academers' as they were sometimes referred to. Instead, each Academy could enter four students each and only those who were graduating this year. The duels used the latest ban lists and official rules, such as the new Pendulum monsters. Each player started off with 4000 life points. Other rules used in the tournament were that you could not alter your deck at any point you please. The only times were deck alterations were allowed just before the quarter finals. Perhaps the most relevant rule was that while duelling was allowed, you weren't allowed use a tournament issued Duel Disk when doing it.

This year however, the tournament was getting even bigger t celebrate several special occasions. Firstly, the two hundredth anniversary of Industrial Illusions, the inventors of the world's most popular game Duel Monsters. The second event being celebrated was the tournament's own tenth birthday. In order to reflect these momentous occasions, the numbers of competitors were doubled, going up to two hundred and fifty six entries. In order to handle such huge numbers, a town, though it was closer in size to a village, was built especially for the occasion. This year the competition was being held at the foot of the French Alps. Industrial Illusions spared no expense in the building of the town. It had all the latest technology and facilities. The only thing it lacked was residential accommodation. The only place people could live in was one of the four hotels in the hotels main square. Staff, such as waitresses, shop clerks and guards, were flown in and out from a nearby airstrip. However, it was the stadium on the town's outskirts that drew the eye.

The stadium appeared small from above, however it contained no less then sixteen underground duelling rings. Every day, thirty two duels would take place until there were only sixty four duelists remaining. These duelists would then be flown to Paris for the final rounds, in the world famous Paris Stadium. Another difference between this tournament and its predecessors was that it wasn't only the winner who received rare cards, but also the people in second and third place. It was also rumoured that the prizes were cards that weren't just given to them months before release, but cards that would be one of a kind forever, never to be reprinted. The sell value of such cards would be... astronomical.

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Samantha Quinn had to resort to going through the decklists of famous duelists in order to keep awake. She had waited for the very last minute before entering her deck in the system of her tournament Duel Disk, staying up all night. Now, if she tried playing cards that weren't on the decklist she had submitted, the Duel Disk would simply shut down. She hoped she didn't look too bad. As this was a formal occasion, she had taken her foster mother's advice and worn a white dress, which contrasted well with her dark skin color. However, upon seeing the other duelists far less formal attire she feared she may have gone over the top. However, Michael had reassured her otherwise and she decided to focus on the cards instead. She had triple checked every card to make sure everything was perfect for her tournament deck. Unlike Michael, who had simply put in his deck the moment he picked up the duel disk. Samantha drummed her fingers on her leg irritably, as she wondered why Michael, one of the few people she actually liked, had to be so scatterbrained. _Perhaps it was true that opposites attract,_ she thought, though she placed more value in the fact that they were the two outsiders in the class when they were younger and both bullied: her because of her skin colour and Michael because of his 'weird' family. She smiled as she thought about them. The Garfields most certainly had their... quirks, which was certainly no bad thing.

Samantha was jolted out of thoughts as the announcer began to as music began to play. She looked up, over the heads of the other duelists in the crowd to where the announcer was shaking hands with who she recognised as Pollux King, the current CEO of industrial shook hands with the announcer, Henry O'Neill, a lanky Irish man in a suit with bleach blond hair. Pollux carried himself with infinite more grace, wearing his trademark black version of the infamous red suit worn by Pegasus, Industrial Illusions' founder himself. His hair, however, was more conservative then Pegasus, being brown and spiky with two bangs framing his face. He took the microphone off Henry before turning to face the assembled duelists.

"I welcome you personally to the New Faces Tournament! The New Faces Tournament is the best place for finding new talent..." began Pollux, beginning a speech that seemed to be destined to lull Samantha to sleep.

 _Can't afford to go to sleep,_ Samantha thought, giving her head a little shake, _there's going be a duel soon._ In a desperate effort to keep herself awake, she tried biting her lip as hard as she could. However, this didn't stop her mind from wandering drearily to the events of her professional duellng career which brought her here.

She first began duelling at age eight, with her foster father, Chris Quinn. He was a doctor by trade and was often busy, so Duel Monsters became a way of spending time with his shy daughter, who he had learnt became more open and talkative when playing a game of strategy like this. However, he was surprised to find he lost every match he played with her. While he certainly was not very good at the game, he fancied himself good enough to avoid utter defeats she inflicted on him. Happily, her school friends began to play the game as well.

It gave her no small satisfaction to beat the bullies who tormented her and Michael so easily. After beating the supposed 'best duellist in the school' the bullied began to leave her alone, allowing her to turn her attention to her attention to the only actual competition she knew: Michael Garfield. The two of them were evenly matched and the duels often came down to a final draw or were interrupted as break ended.

Thinking of her father, her sleepy mind went back to the day she found out she was adopted.

 **Flashback**

 **Samantha, twelve at the time, ran quickly through the living room, not expecting her father to be home so early from his practice.**

" **Oh! Dad, sorry! I didn't see you there." She said after she nearly knocked him down with her enthusiastic entry.**

" **Where do you need to be in such a hurry, sweetie?" he asked smiling down at her. Chris Quinn was a very tall man with kind eyes and balding hair combed neatly over his head. His daughter looked up and met his eyes before replying.**

" **Well, I was hoping to do my homework quickly before going over to the Garfields' to play Duel Monsters." She said, crossing her arms. "How are you, Dad?"**

" **I am fine, sweetie. Anyway, your mother is in the kitchen. We want to talk to you about something important." Chris said, smile fading.**

 **A bolt of worry shot through Samantha. Was something wrong? Maybe Granny had passed away or something-**

" **Your grandmother is perfectly OK, this isn't about her." He said, as if reading her mind. Samantha was thankful for her dark skin colour which hid her blush.**

" **How did you know what I was thinking?" she demanded, crossing her arms, while her father chuckled faintly.**

" **When someone is very dear to you, you always know what they are thinking, sweetie." He said, bending down to kiss his daughter's forehead before offering his hand to her. "Let's not keep your mother waiting, Sam."**

" **You know I hate it when people call me that!" Samantha pouted, to her father's amusement. He laughed as they walked into the kitchen, where Samantha's mother was putting away art supplies. She worked as an elementary school teacher, and painted to relive stress.**

" **Afternoon, sweetie!" she called out, as she closed up a paint tray.**

" **Afternoon, Mum. What do you guys what to talk to me about?" Chris and his wife shared an uneasy glance.**

" **Take a seat, sweetie." Samantha's mother said, gesturing to the table. Feeling curious, Samantha sat.**

" **Mum, Dad?" Samantha looked at each parent in turn, with their strangely sad expressions. "What is it?" she said, growing anxious.**

" **Maybe we shouldn't tell her, Hannah" said Chris, glancing across at his wife, who shook his head.**

" **We can't Chris. We have to do it at some point, y'know." Hannah said, frowning.**

" **I know that, Hannah, I know that but maybe we should-" Chris said, only to be interrupted by Samantha.**

" **Tell me what?!" she cried, her stomach clenching.**

" **Sweetie-" began Chris, only for his wife to interrupt.**

" **Samantha, love... You're adopted."**

 **End of Flashback**

Looking back, Samantha appreciated her mother's blunt attitude to the whole thing. She had known it, at least subconsciously for years. The most obvious difference was skin colour. While she was black, both her parents were white. When she told her people, only Michael had the grace to act surprised. Then again, she wasn't sure if he had been acting. He could very oblivious at times.

She was shaken out when her phone chirruped. She took it out of her purse and glared at it. Speak of the Devil, it was Michael. The text was short but two the point:

 _ **Wke up sleepyhead, mtch about to start. I can c u about to drop off from here.**_

She sighed. As much as she hated it when that happened (nearly as much as she hated his text language), he was right.

Happily, he had texted just in time for her to hear Henry O'Neill, the world class announcer call out the usual 'ladies and gentlemen' bit.

"Honoured ladies and distinguished gentlemen! I welcome, for your entertainment, the winner of last year's new comer cup! The Canadian champ! Carter Hex!" Henry hollered into the microphone. The crowd applauded loudly as the duelist walked out onto the stage.

There was no mistaking the muscular bulk of Carter. At six feet six inches tall, Carter was an imposing young man in his twenties who obviously worked out. He wore a pair of jeans and red t-short with the logo of his sponsor emblazoned on it in white. He also had a silver necklace on. Like most Pro Duelists' duels disks, his had a custom paint job. From her position near the back of the stand, Samantha couldn't make out much, except that it was red with white and green bits.

"And in the opposing corner," the announcer practically purred, "we have the No.1 French Duelist... Give it up for Melina Baudin!" For the French Duelist, the crowd went wild as she walked out.

Melina was defiantly good looking, and one of the oldest duelists to hold the title of national champion at age forty-nine. She was wearing a grey trousersuit with a white buttoned up shirt. On her feet she wore of black heels on her feet and on her face a serene look.

The two duelists walked to the middle of the arena and shook hands before walking to opposite ends.

"Duelists, are you reeaaaaady?!" bellowed Henry.

"Yeah, let's get down to business!" called out Carter. Henry glanced at Melina, who nodded calmly at him.

"OK then. The duel begins!" shouted Henry.

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 **Carter Lp: 4000**

 **Melina Lp: 4000**

"OK," called out Carter, "I'll start us off! Draw!"

 **Carter Hand: 6**

Carter glanced down at his hand before the ghost of a smile touched his lips.

"Alright, I'll start by placing a monster face down and then I'll set two cards in my backrow." Carter said. Three cards formed in front of where Carter was standing, one in the monster card zone and two more in the Spell/Trap card Zone. "And that'll be all this time, folks." Carter smirked, ending his turn.

 **Carter Hand: 3**

"My turn! Draw!" Melina called out as she drew her card, her French accent only barely noticable.

 **Melina Hand: 6**

"I now summon Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands in Attack position." Melina said as she slipped the card into her disk.

 **Manju: Attack: 1400 Defence: 1000**

A peculiar, grey skinned humanoid with arms growing from every part of his body appeared. "I activate Manju's effect, allowing me to add the ritual spell card Contract with the Dark Master." Manju raised his many hands to the sky and glowed faintly for a couple of seconds while Melina took the card from her deck. "I now activate Contract with the Dark Master to Ritual Summon Dark Master – Zork! To fuel my Ritual Summon, I send Manju to the graveyard as well as Djinn Presider of Ritual!"

The phantom of a fat, green skinned humanoid carrying a sword as well as a shield and wearing a metal skirt appeared next to Manju before both monsters dissolved to smoke. The smoke curled together, compressing until it formed the shape of a man, but with a demon's head. The smoke solidified and with a cackle of mad laughter, Dark Master – Zork entered the battlefield.

 **Dark Master – Zork: Attack: 2700 Defence: 1500**

"Cool card" acknowledged Carter. Melina smirked confidently.

"Thank you. Now I activate Zork's effect, meaning-" Melina began, only for Carter to interrupt.

"I activate my trap card, Divine Wrath. By discarding a card, I can destroy your Dark Master!" Carter butted in.

Melina's eyes went wide momentarily before she settled herself and watched Carter's card take effect on Zork.

As Zork prepared to activate his ability- he was practically crackling with black lightning –when a flash of light struck down from the heavens to turn him into dust. The arena echoed with Zork's death bellow, which was soon drowned out by the crowd's applause and cheers.

"I set one card and end my turn," Melina said, "your move Carter."

 **Melina Hand: 2**

"I take it gladly," said Carter, "draw!"

 **Carter Hand: 4**

"I now flip summon my Naturia White Oak!" Carter said.

The face down card in his monster zone flipped upwards, from which a large tree grew.

 **Naturia White Oak: Attack: 1800 Defence: 1400**

Grinning, Carter continued, "and I summon Naturia Tulip!"

 **Naturia Butterfly: Attack: 600 Defence: 1500**

A pink flower appeared next to White Oak and winked at Melina.

"And I know I'll synchro summon my level 6 Naturia Barkion using my level 2 Naturia Tulip and my level 4 Naturia White Oak!" Carter said, raising his hand dramatically

The enthralled audience watched as Naturia Tulip turned into two stars that became green rings which wrapped round Naturia White Oak, who dissolved into stars himself before a flash of green light appeared, from which a long, serpentine dragon who seemed to be composed of equal parts bark stone emerged. It gave an earthshaking roar.

 **Naturia Barkion: Attack: 2500 Defence 1800**

"Now, Barkion, take out some of her life points!" shouted Carter, pointing at Melina.

"I activate my facedown card, Zoma the Spirit!" replied Melina.

"Not so fast! Since that's a trap card, I can banish activate Barkion's ability! I'll banish Naturia White Oak and Divine Wrath to negate your trap."

His dragon gave a roar of approval before exhaling what looked like a cloud of pollen at Melina, which dissolved her facedown card on the way towards her. Melina frowned heavily as her lifepoints decreased.

 **Melina Lp: 1500**

"I think I'll leave it at that." said Carter, smiling broadly, "your move."

 **Carter Hand: 3**

"Yes." said Melina. She quickly glanced down at her deck before drawing her next card.

 **Melina Hand: 3**

"First I activate Fulfillment of Contract, allowing me to revive Dark Master – Zork." said Melina.

A blank piece of paper appeared in the centre of the battlefield. However, it wasn't blank for long as blood red letters began to appear on the paper. The red ink swirled across the page before coming together to spell 'ZORK'. The paper turned into smoke, similar to how Zork had been summoned the first time and from the smoke emerged Zork, glaring hatefully at Carter, who was frowning nervously.

"Of course, I've to pay 800 life points for such an effect. But a small price, don't you think?" Melina smiled. Carter smiled back.

"Good move."

"If you liked that, you'll like this better." said Melina. Carter's brow creased as he heard her claim. She held her next card aloft. "I activate Hand Destruction, so that we both draw two cards then discard two."

 **Melina Hand: 1**

 **Carter Hand: 3**

"And now I'll equip your Naturia Barkion with Cursed Bill!" Melina said, revealing the last card in her hand. Carter was puzzled by her move and even more puzzled when nothing happened.

"Where'd you card go?" he asked nervously, looking around and feeling confused. Melina smiled darkly before replying.

"You'll see soon enough. In the mean time, I'll activate my monster's special ability, letting me roll a dice and putting a different effect into play depending on what I roll," explained Melina, "now, Zork, Dice Throw of Doom!"

Zork began to crackle with black lightning and above his head a dice made of blue flame appeared. With a roar of power, Zork tossed the dice sky-high. It hung in the air, spinning and rolling incredibly fast before settling and floating back down to eye-view. To Melina's pleasure, it landed on three.

"Since it landed on three, Zorc can destroy one of your monsters." she explained, a smile tugging at her lips. Carter's eyes grew wide.

"Uh oh-" he began, but was interrupted by the dice Zorc had rolled turned into a large phoniex. It cawed a challenge at Naturia Barkion, who roared back. As on, they charged each other causing a massive explosion- and leaving Carter all out of monster cards on his field. However, it got even worse.

"Since the monster equipped with Cursed Bill was destroyed, you take damage equal to its defence points!" Melina said, "looks like its game over!"

Carter bit back a rude remark and watched stonily as a piece of paper appeared in front of him. Similar to the other equip spell card Melina had played, blood red ink swirled across the page before forming the numbers 1800. The bill then was folded into a paper aeroplane by an invisible hand and thrown at Carter. It flew right through him, taking 1800 life points.

 **Carter Lp: 2200**

"Let's finish this! Dark Master – Zork, take him down! Emperor's Attack!" cried out Melina, unable to hide a triumphant smile.

Zork unsheathed his broadsword and like before he began to crackle with black lightning. In a movement almost two fast to be seen, he crossed the distance between him and Carter and slashed downwards with his sword, bringing Melina's opponent to his knees and his life points to zero.

 **Carter Lp: 0**

"And that's game folks!" Henry announced, walking over to hug Melina and congratulate her. Unfortunately, Samantha wasn't awake to hear this. At some point around Carter summoning Naturia Tulip she had stopped resisting sleep and gone into a slumber that was unnoticed as everyone else focused on the Pro Duelists.

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"Hey, sleepy Sam! Wake up." Hand gently shook Samantha from her slumber.

" Uh... Where am I?" Samantha murmured, not wanting to wake up.

"You overslept and missed your duel." The voice said.

"WHAT?!" she shrieked, sitting bolt upright and accidently knocking over the owner of the voice, who she recognised as Michael. He looked up at her, grinning and she groaned when she realised it was a ploy to wake her up. She glared at one of her few friends. "I really wouldn't advise doing that again." She threatened, glowering at him. Michael ignored her tone of voice and grinned.

"Calm down, Sam. It got you up." He said, raising his hand defensively and grinning wilder than ever. His navy hair was tyed back in a ponytail and he wore his usual day to day wear of a blue t-shirt and jeans, despite the request for formal clothes.

"I've told you hundreds of times, Michael. Don't call me Sam," she sighed, knowing he'd ignore her request. "Anyway, who won? Melina or Carter?" she questioned him.

"Melina won the first duel with her Dark Master – Zork despite all the odds in Carter's favour. Carter got the second one using that Naturia Bamboo Shoot to prevent her using her ritual monsters," Michael explained, "that thing's ability completely shut down her deck."

"And who run the final one?" Samantha asked as she quickly went through her purse to ensure nothing was gone.

"Carter did. He got out Naturia Exterio AND Naturia Landroise. Her Zorc and Saffira didn't stand a-" he stopped when he noticed Samantha's stricken expression. "What's wrong?" he questioned nervously.

"...Someone took a couple of my cards." Samantha said faintly, evidently very surprised by this turn of events. Michael's eyes went wide.

"Which ones? How many?" he asked, hoping that they hadn't taken them all.

"Four. The Summoned Skull I got autographed by Alistair Jones, the Evilswarm Golem, my Steelswarm Roach. My only copy of Steelswarm Hercules." She replied, frantically scanning nearby seats, trying to remember who was where.

"Will you still be able to compete?" asked Michael, knowing how Samantha would be thinking the same thing.

"Yeah. Still have forty cards in my main deck. I'm fine there," she replied.

"I can't believe this happened!" said Michael, "we're going to report this to security, right now."

"Your right, lets go." Samantha said and followed Michael to the exit.


End file.
